


stumbling ghost

by danisnopeonfire



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2009, M/M, halloween gathering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:09:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27270976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danisnopeonfire/pseuds/danisnopeonfire
Summary: It's the Halloween gathering and Dan's got some feelings about it.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41





	stumbling ghost

**Author's Note:**

> merry spooky season guys <3

It’s just talking in a field, really.

Dan would like this kind of thing on a normal day. He would like the company and the booze and the fact that everyone has a hairstyle similar to his own. He would like that he doesn’t need to dilute himself, because there are about five other people here who are more eccentric and brash than himself, more nerdy, and he didn’t think that was possible. He would like that. He would like all of it.

But this isn’t a normal day.

He keeps messing with his hair. He’s aware of it and it’s pissing him off and he’s telling himself he’s going to stop, but he keeps doing it. He’s doing it constantly – every time someone talks to him, every time Phil steps a bit closer into his space, every time he squeezes Dan’s elbow to ask him if he’s alright.

“Another?” Phil asks him quietly.

Dan looks at him. He feels like he’s just been pulled back to the present. The last time he checked, Phil was making conversation with a nice short girl with pastel pink hair. Even then, he was still glancing at Dan every few seconds, still checking in. But Phil plays it off well. 

Dan has noticed that everyone wants to talk to Phil. He’s good at conversation; he listens and laughs in the right places. He makes people feel special and heard. It’s so easy to like him. Dan likes him so easily.

Dan asks, “What?”

“Another drink?” Phil gestures to Dan’s empty Strongbow can.

“Oh. Please.”

He accepts the hand that Phil rests on his lower back as he guides him to the cooler box. Jubilee Gardens is freezing this time of year, but Dan is burning up.

-

They make it to Camden Town. Dan’s not really looking where he’s going. He’s just following the purple flash of Phil’s shirt. It centres him each time he’s a bit lost.

Gary is talking to the group. He’s making sure they’re all up to speed with the plans for the rest of the day. They’re about to split up for lunch.

“Go have something nice to eat!” he shouts, gesturing vaguely. “There’s a vegan-y place there – somewhere around here.”

Phil looks at Dan then. He doesn’t even need to say anything before Dan is laughing quietly.

“Pizza?” Phil asks.

“Pizza,” he agrees.

-

“Would you still fuck me like this?”

Dan’s feeling a bit ballsy now. They’re in their hotel room getting ready to meet everyone else, and the daytime drinking is catching up with him, and Phil looks fucking _good_ with cat ears.

Phil breathes a chuckle. “I still need to do your nose.”

Dan keeps his face still for him, lets Phil draw black Sharpie on his nose. He watches Phil’s concentrated eyes.

“But would you?”

“Yeah,” Phil says simply. He puts the cap back on the Sharpie and seems to admire his work. “You look adorable.”

Dan smiles. He pushes Phil back on the bed.

“Like a bear?”

“A teddy bear,” Phil says.

He frowns. He doesn’t really want to look cute – that’s not the vibe he was going for. He doesn’t want to give that sort of impression to everyone else. He picks up his phone and uses the black screen as a mirror. His eyeliner has smudged already.

“You’re going to be the fittest one there,” Phil says. He’s smiling up at him.

“It’s not too much?”

“No, it’s unique.”

Dan laughs and touches Phil’s cat ears, rubs the soft material between his finger and thumb.

“Unlike this.”

“Hey.” Phil pushes him gently. “Cats are spooky.”

Dan grins. “You’re terrifying.”

-

“I’ve had these in for weeks because I had to get used to wearing them before I wore them out,” a girl says.

She’s wearing black contact lenses. Dan didn’t catch her name.

She continues. “And I forgot I had them in when I went to get petrol, so the guy behind the till was like – woah, what?!”

Phil laughs, so Dan laughs too. He didn’t really hear a word of what she just said. He’s letting Phil do most of the talking. Phil knows many of the people here, and Dan just knows Phil. He sort of feels like a kid again, standing at his mum’s side in Asda while she chats with a friend she bumped into. He feels redundant.

Phil seems to notice. He smiles at Dan whenever their eyes meet, and offers him little touches when no one is looking, and creates ways to include Dan in the conversation.

They probably don’t need to hide as much as they are. Everyone here is really touchy and open – even the guys.

They hide anyway.

-

If anyone notices that Dan has glued himself to Phil’s side, they don’t say anything.

-

He’s got another lad in his lap. 

His name is James and he’s staring at Dan’s lips each time Dan says something, and he probably wants to take Dan home.

Phil is still close. He’s standing to the side of Dan, sipping his drink and making quiet conversation with a few people nearby. When Dan looks up at him, Phil always looks back, always offers that reassuring smile – always tethers him.

“I like this.” James strokes the fur on Dan’s costume. “You’re a bear, right?”

“Yeah,” Dan says.

“It’s cute.”

Dan smiles. He looks up at Phil and Phil is looking back. Phil is drunk and Dan likes how that looks on him – a lot. He shouldn’t find Phil’s slumped, relaxed posture sexy but he does. It makes his tipsy brain spin a bit, makes him kind of want to jump Phil right there and then, so he grins and looks back at James.

“You’re Frankenstein,” he says. “I like it.”

-

“There you are!”

Two hands grab at Dan’s waist, making him jump. He spins around to see a grinning Phil.

“You scared me, fucker,” Dan says.

“Where’d you go?”

“Just needed a breather.”

He’s found himself sitting on the edge of a large water fountain. It’s close enough to the rest of the group that he can still hear the thrum of their conversation, but far enough that it quiets the nagging in his brain. He feels like this is the first time all day he’s been able to take a deep breath.

“Well budge over.” Phil sits beside him. “I brought chips.”

“Oh my God.” Dan immediately digs in, stealing a few chips from the tray. He’s always starving when he’s had a drink, always got carbs on the brain, and today isn’t an exception to that rule. They eat in silence for a few minutes; Dan doesn’t feel obliged to talk.

“Have you noticed that no one here is eating?” Phil asks after a while.

Dan looks at the tray. There’s only one chip left, so he leaves it for Phil.

“I know. Weirdos.”

Phil giggles. “I tried to persuade people to get food with me but they didn’t want to. So I came to find you.”

“Because your fat boyfriend can’t say no to anything deep-fried and greasy?”

“Boyfriend?” Phil raises an eyebrow.

Dan smiles and feels his cheeks heat up. He kind of doesn’t want to have that conversation here, with everyone else, while Phil has got fucking cat ears on his head. Phil seems to feel the same, because he crumples up the polystyrene tray in his hands and sighs.

“I’m still hungry,” he says. “Let’s get something on the way back to the hotel?’

Dan laughs. “Like you even need to ask."

**Author's Note:**

> here is the [tumblr post](https://danisnopeonfire.tumblr.com/post/633350616430903296/stumbling-ghost) if you'd like to reblog :)


End file.
